Documentary on Guru Nanak to be screened at Awareness Film Festival

A documentary on Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, will be screened at a film festival that raises awareness about various causes that exist in the society.

The documentary will be screened at the Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 13, organizers said Wednesday.

Film directors Jerry Krell and Adam Krell of Auteur Productions along with prominent religious leaders and authors will be present at this opening screening.

National Sikh Campaign (NSC), which has helped support this project, in a statement said PBS, an American public broadcaster, will facilitate the showing of this documentary on 200 TV stations all over America in coming months as Sikhs are celebrating the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism.

Besides narrating Guru Nanak's history and key points of Guru Nanak's teachings, the documentary features such prominent Sikh luminaries ranging from Grammy nominee Snatam Kaur, to the first Sikh mayor in the United States, Mayor Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken New Jersey to show how his positive legacy continues.

"The world has no clue about Guru Nanak and no one knows that he was ahead of his times. He advocated social and gender equality, exhorted people to respect all religions and sowed the seeds of interfaith understanding. These values are critically needed in the current times and this documentary is very timely, a wonderful gift to the world on his 550th birth-anniversary," said Jerry Auteur, director and producer of the documentary.

Auteur Productions has made many documentaries on world religions and on health and they had traveled to India and Pakistan to shoot the original footage of Gurdwaras related to Guru Nanak.

"We are thrilled that finally this documentary will be seen by people all across USA and there will be much appreciation about the pioneering philosophy of Guru Nanak and how it impacted the world positively. Recent polls have shown that there is total ignorance about Guru Nanak in the Western world. 550th celebration is the most appropriate time for us to educate the world," saidRajwant Singh, co-founder and senior adviser of NSC.